This is really disturbing IMO. http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2008/12/28/news/community/1aaa02_road.txt 1. Besides the basic privacy issues, this is a really bad idea. 2. First of all, it makes it so only Oregonians pay the taxes instead of everybody driving through the state. That alone should be reason enough to not do it. Will Californians have the devices installed on their cars as they travel through the state? No. Washingtonians? No. Idaho? No. So in other words, the only ones paying taxes on our roads are Oregonians. Not the truckers coming up I5 who buy gas here on the way through. 3. If you don't have the technology in your vehicle, you are taxed at a higher rate. Which is going to be a majority of the vehicles if they ever introduced the program. They try to act like this is for a minority of vehicles, when in fact, all of the vehicles on the road do no have these systems installed, so they will be taxed at the higher rate.
Or maybe a toll road at each end of I-5? Of course this would have to be once a new bridge is put in going into and out of Washington. I always thought they would be a bad idea but now that I am living on the east coast dealing with them more and more they are not as bad as I thought.
Method 1: Gas Tax = 24 cents per gallon. Everybody who drives through the state and buys gas here pays it, not just Oregonians. Method 2: GPS Tax= 1.2 cents per Mile if you have the GPS device. 2 cents per gallon if you do not have one. Only Oregonians pay this tax, so all others driving through the state do not contribute. Now lets do the math and see how this works out: A car that gets 36 mpg (an economy car) and has a 10 gallon gas tank and drives until empty. 36 mpg x 10 gallons = 360 Miles. Method 1: 10 gallons x 24 cents per gallon = $2.40 for this trip in gas taxes. Method 2 @1.2 cents per Mile: 360 Miles x 1.2 cents/Mile= $4.32 for this trip in gas taxes. Method 2 @2.0 cents per Mile: 360 Miles x 2.0 cents/Mile=$7.20 for this trip in gas taxes. Now lets throw in a gas guzzling Semi that on an optimistic day gets 10 MPG, and say they purchase 10 gallons of gas. Remember this vehicle causes much more road damage than other vehicles due to weight. Method 1: 10 Gallons x 24 cents per gallon= $2.40 for this trip in gas taxes. Method 2: 100 Miles x 1.2 cents per gallon=$1.20 for this trip in gas taxes. Method 3: 100 Miles x 2.0 cents per gallon=$2.00 for this trip in taxes. How much are people driving through our state going to be taxed even though they are using our roads? Zero dollars. Are we promoting higher gas mileage vehicles? IMO this is doing exactly the opposite. Most vehicles are in a scenario closer to scenario #3, at 2 cents per gallon due to the lack of presence of a GPS system. This means for many folks their gas tax would triple compared to what it is now.
What do you think does more damage to the road? A fuel efficient vehicle that weighs very little, or a huge 18 wheeler loaded with tons of stuff? If you set up your scientific model to not include all the variables you are almost guaranteed to fail. This bill is exactly that type of logic. We are going to tax people and their grocery getter mobiles more, so that a guy from out of state with a truck can wear down our roads for freee. That is what this comes down to.
Kulongoski has a suspicious history of trying to track the personal movements of Oregonians. This is the third time he has proposed putting GPS tracking devices in our vehicles. His war on privacy is exceeded only by his war on the middle and lower classes by his emphasis on raising tobacco and alcohol taxes, gas taxes, state park camping fees, while cutting most services to the needy. Oregon, and Oregonians have suffered greatly because of him in too many ways too count. The worst, and shadiest, governor Oregon has had since Vic Atiyeh.
Some serious inattention to detail on the part of the posters in this thread. The proposal is not for a 2 cent gas tax for those who don't have the tracking device, but 2 cents higher than the current gas tax. People driving through the state will not have the tracking device, and thus will pay more gas tax than they do now, not less (and not zero). barfo
